Apparatus-Based Acrobatic Disciplines. These acrobatic forms use equipment. This adds another layer of challenge and excitement. Aerial Arts: Aerial arts take acrobatics to new heights. Artists perform breathtaking routines in the air. They use special equipment. Trapeze: The trapeze is a classic circus apparatus. A horizontal bar hangs from ropes.

acrobatics, (Greek: “to walk on tip-toe,” or “to climb up”), the specialized and ancient art of jumping, tumbling, and balancing, often later with the use of such apparatus as poles, one-wheel cycles, balls, barrels, tightropes, trampolines, and flying trapezes.. In 1859 the invention of the flying trapeze by J. Léotard, as well as Charles Blondin’s crossing of Niagara Falls on a ...